This is a guest post from Thano Prokos, Great Lakes Regional Student Leader on the 2013-2014 Student Advisory Board. Thano is a junior at DePaul University, majoring in Secondary Education. This is his first year serving OCF on the SAB.
The Kontakion of the Life-Giving Spring reads,
O Lady graced by God,
you reward me by letting gush forth, beyond reason,
the ever-flowing waters of your grace from your perpetual Spring.
I entreat you, who bore the Logos, in a manner beyond comprehension,
to refresh me in your grace that I may cry out,
“Hail redemptive waters."
It’s really neat to think that Orthodoxy alludes to our lives as being like a spring, gushing forth the waters of God’s grace. But even as an Orthodox Christian deeply involved in OCF and other ministries, I often feel like my life is more of a leaky faucet than a spring. We live in a secular world, and God’s presence often goes unfelt. Drawing water to gush forth can be a vexing challenge.The difficulty in finding spiritual inspiration and fulfillment often helps me identify with a lot of my atheist friends. I believe in God. I love my Orthodox roots, and my goal is to do His work, but sometimes I feel like a little “Keep going, Thano, you’re doing great!” from up above would be nice. When I find myself asking for that affirmation, and I don’t hear it, I start to wonder if the religious life is a life well-spent.
